This is my weekly article published in The Star newspaper for today.   A paradigm shift is being developed in energy management at the national level. The previous dependence on foreign oil imports is coming to an end with a new package of legislative, administrative and technological innovations aiming to steer the country into more reliable, sustainable and even environmentally friendly... [read more]

In a landmark transition towards comprehensive and effective environmental compliance systems in Jordan the Ministry of Environment is currently developing a robust bylaw for environmental compliance and enforcement. The announcement came by the Minister of Environment Khalid Irani during the opening of a joint Jordanian-USA workshop on environmental inspection and enforcement that included the environmental... [read more]

I have published this article in the weekly "The Star" newspaper. I am hoping to publish a weekly environmental article in this newspaper starting next week. I hope you find it useful   By: Batir Wardam   In the past few weeks readers of the daily newspapers in Jordan were getting information about the closure, penalization and warnings of various factories and developmental facilities in... [read more]

Tunisia has issued a new environmental protection law that cracks heavily on air pollution from factories and vehicles. specifying financial fines and imposing the polluters to join a pollution monitoring network at their expense. The Tunisian Parliament and Council of Advisors recently passed a law instituting mandatory measures for monitoring air quality and delineating a series of hard penalties... [read more]

We Jordanians tend to take the law into our own hands sometimes and that causes some social and political problems. The Minister of Environment Mr Khalid Irani is no exception, but by implementing the law personally he gives an example and leads a process of national enforcement of environmental law through the newsly-established environmental police department. The Jordan Times published an interesting... [read more]

In March 2006 the lower house of Parliament endorsed the draft "interim" Environmental protection Law, adding a few modifications to the law that has been acting de facto as an interim law since 2003.   The new environmental law does not drastically differ from the previous one, but some main articles are worth highlighting.   Article 6.b states that "Hazardous waste is not permitted to be entered... [read more]

After three years of implementation as an interim (temporary) law, the environmental protection law has been finally endorsed by the Jordanian Parliament on Wednesday March 8th 2006. The session for discussing the law by the parliament was not dramatoc as all of the articles were approved at high speed except for article 6 that states penalties of environmental violators. The focus was on penalties... [read more]

Many of you have read or heared about campaigns to save the trees and forests of the Amazon, but this is your chance to prove how much a loyal environmentalist Jordanian and Arab you are by adding your signature to a petition organized by Jordan's environmental civil society against the modifications of the Agricultural law.   The story begins with the Government introducing a one-article modification... [read more]

One of the oldest and wildest dreams for environmentalists in Jordan is about to materialize. Jordan is now in the process of establishing a special "Environmental Police Department" to "look after" all violators of environmental integrity in the country. Although the process is still on paper, but the political will is there. A special committee composed of the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry... [read more]